A 40+ female runner's journey to the sub 50 minute 10K

[TheEd]

nice going Mistral

look to have your pulse hover around 140 bpm, as you develop on the program, we will change heart rates / pace accordingly

but for now keep things easy, looking to have a good 1k session next week

do provide feedback of the pace when running around 140 bpm, if you feel comfortable, then over the last 15 minutes you can look to run around 150 bpm

on we go

TheEd

[Mistral]

My heart rate goes up pretty quickly even at very moderate paces, and 140 bmp will typically keep me around 7:00 min/km. 150 still feels easy, even 160 most days. I’ll try and stay below 150 bpm.

[TheEd]

hope you coped with the easy runs @ pulse

TheEd

[Mistral]

All joy. I did a nice and relaxed 16K, average pace 6:23 min/km, average heart rate 146 bpm. The last 2.5K were mostly uphill, which drives the average up a bit.

I felt great throughout the session and could have gone on for many more kilometers. The weather was wonderful too. These easy long runs are my favourite runs by far!

[TheEd]

this is great to read Mistral, now for the feedback from the quality session

looks very promising this feedback

onwards

TheEd

[Mistral]

Ouch! This wasn’t at all what I had hoped for. It was not fun and I had to take more than 90 seconds rest between the last 3 intervals to muster the courage to get going again. Most of all I felt like quitting, so at least I got some mental training in there!

5x1K LHR AHR MHR
4:31 147 171 177
4:46 139 174 181
4:56 132 171 178
4:49 131 172 180
4:55 124 168 177

Lessons learnt:

1. The time of day matters. A lot. I honestly believe this is the main difference between the successful 3x2K session and the not-so-successful 5x1K. I know this from previous training sessions and my daily life too: My peaks and valleys are very high, very low, and ridiculously predictable.
   
2. The area where I ran isn’t working well for intervals – too windy, paved bits, too many other people about. I don’t think conditions really slowed me much, but they added to the frustration.
   
3. Running intervals by GPS has its challenges too. Garmin’s current pace indicator was all over the place at times, so I had no idea what pace I was running at. As a result, the first lap was much too fast, which may have contributed to ruining the session.
   

I’ll give some thought to how I can organize myself differently for these sessions, in particular how to fit them in at a time of day when I have more energy. And maybe I should consider finding a treadmill (no tracks available, unfortunately).

How should I approach this weekend’s 5K paced run? Choose a good time of day and give the sub 25 min a go? I promise not to be too demoralised if I don’t make it.

[TheEd]

the quality sessions are notoriously tough and they are the sessions that allow you to achieve your goals

try to measure out a 2k loop with 1k splits that you can use for the future

don't be troubled by the session, things can only get better

for the 5k paced, look to run at 5.05 per k for the first 4k and try to go quicker the last km

this will be of far more benefit for you

onwards and forwards

:jive:

TheEd

[Mistral]

Thanks for the feedback TheEd. I'll let you know how the 5K goes.

[Mistral]

Now this is one happy runner reporting: I just finished today's 5K paced run, clocking in at 24:02! That's an average pace of 4:48, which I wouldn't have thought possible. Honestly I didn't really expect to be able to go below 25 minutes.

Garmin says it was only 4.78 km, but Garmin is lying. I have the perfect place for this session; a flat loop around a small lake in a beautiful park nearby. The loop is exactly 625 meters - you'd think it was done on purpose. 625 x 8 = 5000, so as I did the full 8 loops I'm certain it's Garmin cheating, not me.

With the messed-up GPS the splits aren't meaningful, but the last lap was definitely the fastest.

Super pleased with the session!

[TheEd]

nice Mistral, if you use the same course then this time should apply to this course and other results on other courses can vary

great to see things moving in the right direction

enjoy

TheEd